The Ansonia Board of Apportionment and Taxation approved a tentative 2012 – 2013 budget Monday, after a handful of people spoke during a public hearing at City Hall.
The budget numbers become final after the tax board votes on May 21, but Monday’s vote showed the tax board is leaning toward $58.6 million budget that would result in a 5.3 percent tax increase for residents.
The vote was 10 to 1.
Democrat Gale Banks voted against the budget, “because the taxpayers can’t afford an increase.”
Banks said she wanted to see the Board of Education come forward with a budget request with a zero percent increase.
“Everybody else worked hard to get a zero,” Banks said. “I think the Board of Education could have.”
Meanwhile, education officials said the school budget proposal — even with a $622,786 increase — would mean layoffs in the district. The school budget proposal is for $27 million. The current budget is $26.4 million.
Superintendent Carol Merlone said about 24 positions will be eliminated if the proposal is approved as-is.
Those positions include:
- Art/music teachers
- A physical education teacher
- A reading interventionist
- A proposed behavior interventionist
- One assistant principal at the High School
- A match curriculum coordinator
- Tutors
“This is a travesty to education,” Merlone said.
The proposal will also likely result in cuts to sports programs across the district, Merlone and school board president John Lawlor said.
About $100,000 will be cut from the athletics budget if the proposal is passed.
“A 2.4 percent increase is simply not enough to sustain our current programs and services, never mind improve them, which should be our primary goal,” Lawlor said during the public hearing. He was one of seven people to talk during the public session.
The Board of Education plans to meet to finalize cuts, after the final Board of Apportionment and Taxation budget is approved on Monday, May 21.
The Numbers
The proposal comes with a tax rate of 27.65 mills. That means a home assessed at $230,000 would see a tax bill of $6,359.
The current tax rate is 26.25 mills. The proposed increase in taxes is 1.4 mills, or about 5.3 percent.
An average tax bill — on a home assessed at $230,000 — would increase by $322 if the proposed budget is approved.
The total proposed budget is $58,672,738. The city expenses are actually lower than last year, to offset a big decrease in education grants.
In 2011 – 2012, the city received $6.6 million in education grants. Those grants will drop to only $4.4 million in 2012 – 2013.
“The revenue is down, the expenses are down,” said Board of Apportionment and Taxation chairman Richard Sturges. “The mill rate is up. The revenue went down a lot more than our expenses.”
Other Details
The Board of Apportionment and Taxation plans to use $322,000 from the city’s reserve fund to help offset decreases in grants and other revenues.
Sturges didn’t have figures for how much would be left in the reserve fund, but said it would now hover on the lower recommended level of about 5 percent of the total operating budget.
The following are some details from the budget proposal:
- The capital improvements line item is increasing from $104,000 to $409,000 to pay for three new police cars, the design for the second phase of the Riverwalk, and half of a payment for flood dyke inspections.
- The Police Department budget is increasing from $5.2 million to $5.7 million, to account for salaries for two extra police officers. The department is allowed to have 33, but right now has only 30, according to Sturges. The city wants to hire two new officers next year to plan for upcoming retirements in the department.
- The Economic Development budget will increase from $145,689 to $201,828. The increase accounts for unused salary money from the economic development budget this year, according to Vinnie Scarlata, the chairman of the Economic Development Commission. The commission plans to use the money to build a website, and give out zero-interest loans to business owners looking to repair and upgrade exterior facades.
Public input
Of the seven people who spoke during the public hearing, five talked about the budget proposal. Michael Egan asked the tax board to “have mercy on the taxpayer please” by keeping the tax increase minimal.
He suggested the school district should give more serious consideration to regionalization to save money.
“It’s been talked about for years, but very few forward steps have been made in that area,” Egan said.
Joan Radin, fifth-ward alderman, said she had watched several budget deliberation meetings of the tax board.
“They were agonizing over what they had to cut,” Radin said.
Cathleen Venson urged the tax board to fully fund the school request.
Next Steps
The Board of Apportionment and Taxation will meet at 6 p.m. on Thursday, May 17 at Ansonia City Hall to discuss the comments made at the public hearing.
During that meeting, the Board of Apportionment and Taxation could propose more changes to the budget proposal.
They meet again at 7 p.m. on May 21. The vote on the budget proposal taken on May 21 sets the final budget.
